Islamabad :The representatives of federal capital’s markets in a meeting chaired by Sardar Yasir Ilyas Khan, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry have made a consensus demand to the government to notify closure of businesses once in a week in Islamabad for tackling Covid-19 issue as they have already suffered huge business losses due to previous lockdowns and restrictions of timings, therefore, they could not afford closure of businesses for two days in a week.
Fatma Azim Senior Vice President ICCI, Muhammad Ejaz Abbasi former President ICCI, Khalid Chaudhry Convener ICCI Traders Committee, Ajmal Baloch President All Pakistan Anjamun-e-Tajiran, Raja Javed President G-9 Markaz, Tahir Abbasi Group Leader F-10 Markaz, Altaf Shah President G-7 Markaz, Shehzad Abbasi President Super Market, Azhar Hameed G-10 Markaz, Farhan Khan President Furniture Market Golra More, Faheem Khan DHA Phase-II, Aslam Khan G-10/1, Ch. Irfan G-10/4 Islamabad, Zahid President Pakistan Furniture Association, Shah Anwar President Bara Kahu, Mohsin Dar GM Safa Mall Islamabad, Yousaf Rajput President Blue Area, Zahid Abbasi Melody Market, Abrar Computer Association Blue Area, Irfan GM Centaurus Mall, Atiq Janjua I-9 Markaz, Zahid Hameed Jewellers Association Islamabad, Sheikh Awais President E-11 Markaz and representatives of many other markets expressed their great concerns over keeping businesses closed for two days in a week and called upon the government to revise its decision to keep businesses closed at most once in a week in Islamabad as the business dynamics in the federal capital were quite different compared to other provinces.
Addressing the meeting, Sardar Yasir Ilyas Khan, President ICCI said that the governments in many countries have provided significant financial relief to businesses for enabling them to combat the impact of Covid-19 pandemic, but in Pakistan instead of providing relief, businesses were being closed twice in a week, which would prove very harmful with detrimental impact on the economy as it would cause permanent closure of a large number of businesses and render thousands of people jobless. FBR had also been requested multiple times by ICCI to allow tax filers to pay their taxes in instalments or offer tax payers a deferred filing date in order to give some relaxation to businesses that have suffered losses in billions nationwide. He said that the business community was very satisfied with Chief Commissioner Islamabad Amir Ali Ahmed and Deputy Commissioner Hamza Shafqaat because they have adopted a cooperative approach towards businesses and have facilitated them throughout the entire covid-19 scenario, which was rather commendable and all traders appreciated the district administration for their proactive role in supporting local businesses, however, the NCOC was making decisions for business closure without any consultation with the business community, which was not a wise approach. He urged that being the key stakeholders of the economy, the government should take all important economic decisions in consultation with the business community especially the Chamber of Commerce in order to save the economy from further contraction.
The market representatives shared many ideas with President ICCI to keep businesses running by implementation of SOPs and authorized him to negotiate with the ICT Administration to convince the government for closure of businesses once in a week as opposed to two days so that the business community does not suffer any further and we can all work towards economic revival after the induced recession which we are all going through due to covid-19.